US Supreme Court declines to review NSA phone spying case

The U.S. Supreme Court has denied the Electronic Privacy Information Center's petition for it to review a National Security Agency (NSA) phone record data collection program.

By
Loek Essers
| Nov 19, 2013

| IDG News Service

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The U.S. Supreme Court has denied the Electronic Privacy Information Center's petition for it to review a National Security Agency (NSA) phone record data collection program.

EPIC asked the Supreme Court to vacate an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) that requires the Verizon telephone company to turn over all phone records on all of its customers to the NSA.

According to EPIC, that order was unlawful, and it wanted the Supreme Court to review the collection of vast quantities of irrelevant information on American citizens.

The group petitioned the Supreme Court directly, skipping lower courts, arguing that only the Supreme Court had the proper jurisdiction to review a FISC order.

On Monday, however, the Supreme Court declined to review the order without explaining why. It simply stated that EPIC's request was denied.

EPIC is disappointed by the Supreme Court's decision, and still thinks the surveillance order was unlawful, the organization said in a news release.

"There is simply no way to establish relevance for the collection of all telephone records on all U.S. telephone customers for an intelligence investigation," EPIC said, adding that it is very hard to challenge these orders and it therefore urged the Supreme Court to reverse the decision.

EPIC's request to review the surveillance order was disputed by lawyers of the Obama administration in October. They argued that EPIC is not allowed to challenge the legality of phone record collection because the Patriot Act only allows challenges from companies that receive government orders to turn over business records, or from the U.S. government.

The Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction in this case because the order is directed against Verizon, the government lawyers said.

Loek is Amsterdam Correspondent and covers online privacy, intellectual property, open-source and online payment issues for the IDG News Service. Follow him on Twitter at @loekessers or email tips and comments to [email protected]